The field of the present invention relates to trailer hitches. In particular, a trailer hitching post is disclosed herein for securing a trailer when the trailer is not hitched to a towing vehicle.
Trailers of various sorts intended to be towed by private vehicles are quite numerous on the roads today, and are used to transport a wide variety of (sometimes) quite valuable objects, such as campers and other live-in recreational vehicles, boats and other water-craft, motorcycles, dirt bikes, and other sport/recreation vehicles, transport trailers, utility/tool trailers, and so forth. These trailers render the objects thereon easy to transport, but also make such objects easy to steal. All a would-be thief need do is arrive with a vehicle equipped with a suitable trailer hitch ball, couple the trailer to be stolen to his/her vehicle, and drive away. This problem is present whether the trailer is attached to an authorized towing vehicle, or is in storage attached to a hitching post of some sort. This is a long recognized problem, as evidenced by the many proposed solutions disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos.: 5,094,423; 4,756,172; 5,195,339; 4,774,823; 5,873,271; 4,032,171; 5,087,064; 5,700,024; 5,584,495; 4,836,570; 4,577,884; 4,538,827; 3,857,575; 5,775,139; and 5,351,511. Each of these patents is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. In particular, many of these previous devices are deficient in that they permit access to locking and/or securing structures intended to prevent unauthorized removal and/or towing of the trailer, or they are not sufficiently robust to prevent unauthorized removal of the trailer through destruction of the device.
It is therefore desirable to provide a secure trailer hitching post for secure storage of a trailer that effectively denies unauthorized access to securing and/or locking structures thereof, and is sufficiently robust to effectively impede unauthorized removal of the trailer through destruction of the hitching post.
Certain aspects of the present invention may overcome one or more aforementioned drawbacks of the previous art and/or advance the state-of-the-art of secure trailer hitching posts, and in addition may meet one or more of the following objects:
To provide a secure trailer hitching post for preventing unauthorized removal of a trailer secured thereto;
To provide a secure trailer hitching post wherein a coupler of a secured trailer is enclosed from the top and bottom and three sides;
To provide a secure trailer hitching post for preventing unauthorized access to a mechanism for securing the hitching post to a surrounding structure;
To provide a secure trailer hitching post for preventing unauthorized access to a locking mechanism thereof;
To provide a secure trailer hitching post that may be temporarily secured in a location for securing a trailer thereto;
To provide a secure trailer hitching post wherein a channel bracket secured thereto may be adapted to receive the lower edge of a garage door for securing the hitching post thereto; and
To provide a secure trailer hitching post sufficiently robust to significantly impede unauthorized removal of the trailer by destruction of the hitching post.
One or more of the foregoing objects may be achieved in the present invention by a secure trailer hitching post comprising: a) a body having an open top and a front opening and being adapted to be secured to a surrounding structure; b) a hitch ball assembly comprising a hitch ball plate and a hitch ball, the hitch ball plate being positioned within and secured to the body and dividing the interior thereof into upper and lower portions; and c) a retainer assembly comprising a flat retainer plate and an apertured vertically depending tab connected thereto and received within a slot in the lower portion of the interior of the body. A sliding retaining shaft is positioned within apertures in the front of the body and the front of the slot, so that the retaining shaft may slide inward into the slot and through an aperture of the tab of the retainer assembly, thereby securing the tab within the slot and thereby securing the retainer assembly to the body. A coupler of a trailer is placed on and engaged with the hitch ball and the retainer assembly received within the top of the body with the tab received within the slot. The retaining shaft slides into the slot and through an aperture of the tab, and a locking mechanism is engaged to prevent the retaining shaft from sliding out of the aperture, thereby securing the coupler of the trailer to the trailer hitch and preventing unauthorized removal therefrom. The body may further comprise a horizontal channel bracket for receiving the lower edge of a garage door when the hitching post is placed on the ground and the garage door is closed. Closing and locking the garage door with the lower edge within the channel bracket serves to secure the hitching post to the garage door, but allows authorized moving and/or removal of the hitching post when desired.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention may become apparent upon referring to the preferred and alternative embodiments of the present invention as illustrated in the drawings and described in the following written description and/or claims.